I think President Truman’s decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was wrong. I understand that many people feel this was the right decision and there was no other way to end war but here are a few reasons why I think the bomb droppings was a mistake. One reason is because the United States didn’t even leave a warning for Japan to get ready or give them a chance to surrender from the world’s harshest war weapon (Primary source packet #2). In another document, Mr. Byrnes’ didn’t agree with the atomic bomb incident because Japan was already defeated and wouldn’t have made it another 6 months (document based questions #2). If the United States would’ve just waited a little longer or use a less harsh method that they knew more about, I bet Japan would’ve gave up and let us win. I also understand the bomb plan was a success in ending the war (Hiroshima: the first city destroyed) but I also know the United States did not predict how badly the effects would be or how destructive the bombs actually were (Primary Source Packet #2). Just because this plot was designed to save American lives and cost (fog of war lesson #5), I think the damages and side effects were much greater than anything that has ever happened in war. In Life: Hiroshima and Nagasaki excerpt, a man spoke about what he saw, “In the following waves [after the initial blast] people’s bodies were terribly squeezed, and then their internal organs ruptured. Then the blast blew the broken bodies at 500 to 1,000 miles per hour through the flaming, rubble-filled air. Practically everybody within a radius of 6,500 feet was killed or seriously injured and all buildings crushed or disemboweled.” This statement made me realize that innocent people died because of Truman’s say and I don’t think this was fair at all. At the least he should’ve warned Japan and the innocent people to get out, surrender, or there will be trouble. Another guy said he could see “miles of crushed, flat plains” and could see the bomb from “250 mile away radius” (LIFE: Hiroshima and Nagasaki). From the video Fog of War lesson #5 a man said, “I can’t grasp how the bombing was proportional to the other countries as how badly it destroyed Japan.” Another man described how the atomic bomb effected people in Japan a couple days later,“Japanese doctors said that those who had been killed by the blast itself died instantly. But presently, according to these doctors, those who had suffered only small burns found their appetite failing, their hair falling out, their gums bleeding. They developed temperatures of 104, vomited blood, and died. It was discovered that they had lost 86 percent of their white blood corpuscles. Last week the Japanese announced that the count of Hiroshima’s dead had risen to 125,000.” Not only did this poisonous weapon who gave off radiation affect the people who experienced it but it also affected people months and years later. The bomb left behind a tortuous side effects for people enduring deficiencies, cancer, and mutations; even babies who weren’t born came out with many problems due to an event they had nothing to do with (Hiroshima: the first city destroyed). I also know I wasn’t there but below are pictures that made my mind up the instant I saw how horrifying and devastating it looked.
“As far as a man can walk for an hour in any direction there is only a flat, silent plain, a still-stinking junk pile…” (Life: Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Photos From the Ruins)
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